Short Story: The Dwarven Blacksmith

In a certain meadow lives an old dwarf named Yurk. Yurk is a known dwarven blacksmith. Kings, knights, and famous adventurer would often pay him a visit to have weapons, armours and tools forge for them. Unfortunately, most of them will go back disappointed because Yurk will only agree to forge them something if they satisfied his request. Yurk's request can't be said to be difficult but they can be tricky to fulfill. What's more his request is different each time.

One day, a young adventurer going with the name Leon pays him visit. He want Yurk to forge him a sword he would use in his next quest. Yurk told him that he would only do so if he could satisfy his request. All ready aware of this Leon agreed without hesitation. Yurk's request is simple, he want a Leon to catch a jade rabbit for his dinner. Jade rabbits are rare magical beast with greenish fur, hence the name. They are not that powerful but they have a strange ability that can create illusions. For this reason, jade rabbits are extremely difficult to catch.

Yurk tells Leon that he only have before sunset to catch a jade rabbit. If he return after sunset, even if Leon manages to catch a jade rabbit, he would have failed the request and he will not forge anything for him. Nodding Leon quickly leaves. Several hours later, he returned holding a jade rabbit. Seeing this Yurk was surprise. Though he knows that it is not impossible to catch a jade rabbit, it would not be easy. Looking at the jade rabbit he noticed that it's still fresh, meaning it wasn't that long ago when it was caught.

Out of curiosity he asked Leon how he manages to catch a jade rabbit. Smiling, Leon told him how he did it. According to Leon, once he went out to hunt, he quickly found a jade rabbit foraging for food. First he tried shooting it with an arrow but failed and the jade rabbit escapes. He tried chasing it but it quickly uses its ability to create illusions to make itself invisible. Afterwards Leon lost sight of it. Disappointed, Leon was about to look for another jade rabbit when suddenly an earth dragon appears!

"An earth dragon! How could there be an earth dragon on this meadow?!" Asked Yurk in an incredulous voice.

"I'm not really sure but it might have something to do with me..."Leon answered while scratching his head.

Seeing the confusion on Yurk's face, Leon explained the strange things happening around him. For example when he was chased by a gorgon in a certain ruins, he manage to survive because a giant leap frog suddenly jump out of the pond inside the ruins, directly squashing the gorgon to a paste. Or, when he is about to be swallowed by a giant man-eating boa, where a hive of the poisonous striped needle bees was accidentally swallowed by the boa, making the bees angry and stinging its stomach with the bees poison sting, thus killing the boa...

Leon explained that at first he thought all of this are mere coincidences but after happening so many times it hits him that it may not just be a coincidence but rather he has extremely good luck. As how he manages to capture the jade rabbit, it was actually much simplier. After the jade rabbit saw the earth dragon, it fainted from fear, thus losing the effect of its ability, allowing Leon to capture it. As for the earth dragon, it simply ignored Leon and left the meadow...

Yurk was dumbfounded after hearing all of this. He can't believe that such a lucky person exist. But since his request is completed he had no choice but forge him a sword as promised. Making Leon very happy. After that day Leon became a constant customer of Yurk but he no longer test requested anything from Leon as he know it would be pointless in front of the young man's incredible luck.